Growing Up
by Schwarzd354
Summary: A year after the end of the series, and nothing has changed. One day Ranma finds an abandoned baby. How will this affect the everyone's lives?


Growing Up

Chapter 1

Ranma was lost in thought as he walked across Nerima. Having been sent flying by Akane yet again, he didn't feel like hurrying back to the Tendo dojo. Miraculously he had avoided cold water when he landed, and was still male. Once again his fiancées had decided to show him how much they 'loved' him. This made Akane jealous; he knew it, even if she would never admit it. Ranma really didn't care either way what Ukyo, Shampoo and Kodachi did. He didn't love any of them and never would. He had long since grown tired of the whole situation. More then anything it was the way he was treated as a trophy rather then a person. All four of them, Akane included, saw him as a prize. Something they had been fighting over for two years, and none of them seemed ready to give up any time soon.

Ranma sighed and shook his head in frustration as he walked. He really wasn't a person to them. Kodachi saw him as a toy, likely one that would be disposed of once she grew bored of him or when something new came along. Shampoo viewed him as a perfectly submissive Juketsouku husband, something that he would never be. Ukyo perceived him as a way to regain the girlhood that had been stolen from her but refused to acknowledge his dreams of being a world-class martial artist, believing that he would be perfectly happy working an okonomiyaki restaurant with her. And Akane…

When he looked at Akane, he saw a woman he once loved. When she looked at him, all he saw was how she hated him. Two years since he had arrived in Nerima, and over a year since Jusendo and the failed wedding. For awhile, he had thought that things would get better, at least between the two of them. They had admitted their feelings, wasn't that all that mattered? Instead, Akane blamed him for even more inconsequential things then before, and attacked him even more ruthlessly. He knew that the source of her stress came from dealing with all his other fiancées, their admirers and his other rivals. But that didn't make it hurt any less, physically or emotionally, when she sent him across town.

Nabiki had once asked him why he let Akane do that. He explained that there were two reasons. First, it defused her enough that she would take the rest of her aggression out on something inanimate, like her cinder blocks. And second, if he did dodge, she'd chase him until she did hit him, causing a great deal of collateral damage in the process.

Ranma's train of thought was disrupted when he heard a wail coming from up the street. Instincts kicking into gear, he ran up the road to find the source of the cry. Mentally preparing to stop muggers, wild animals, or whatever else may be threatening someone.

What he was not prepared for, was the sight of an infant in a trash bin. The baby was wailing as much as it could, but it was clearly malnourished and exhausted. The blanket it had been wrapped in was wet and filthy, only partly due to the baby (a girl he noted) and the trash. Ranma quickly took off his shirt and wrapped the baby up in it. Cradling the poor child to his chest seemed to calm it, as did the swaying motion of his torso as he roof hopped to Doctor Tofu's clinic.

'Thank God the doc came back to Nerima.' Ranma thought as he entered to clinic, ignoring the 'closed' sign. Kicking off his shoes he called out "Hey Doc, you here?"

"Just a moment." Ranma waited as patiently as he could. The baby had fallen asleep and thankfully hadn't soiled his shirt, aside from trash residue anyways. Ono entered the waiting room, "Oh Ranma, I thought it was you. What's the matter? You don't look injured."

"It's not me Doc, I need you to help her." Said Ranma as he held the baby out to the Doctor.

Ono was shocked. "Ranma…Where did you find this baby?"

"On the other side of town. In a garbage bin."

Ono Tofu was usually a very calm man. And now that he was past his nervousness around Kasumi, very little was able to set him on edge. But upon hearing this news he was unable to hide his anger. Ranma had been fighting a similar rage since finding the baby girl, only the need to get her to a doctor had been able to keep him calm.

Taking a breath to calm himself, Ono led Ranma into the examination room. But when Ranma tried to place the baby on the table, she immediately awoke and began to cry. Stopping only when Ranma held her again.

"It seems she likes you Ranma." Ono joked.

"Heh, yeah guess so. I'm just glad she's too young to be a fiancé." The two friends shared a laugh at that.

They cleaned the baby up with a warm bath before the examination. Which Ono conducted while Ranma held her. The poor girl seemed very comfortable in Ranma's arms, hardly crying even when Ono drew some blood for testing. For his part, Ranma murmured reassurances and patted the baby's back to keep her calm. All the while absorbing what he saw Ono doing. He hadn't discussed this with many people, Ono being one of the few, but Ranma was planning to go to medical school.

"That should do for now Ranma. I'll know the results of the blood tests in a week or two. In the meantime she seems healthy enough, just underfed and poorly treated. But she isn't injured, and doesn't have any illnesses that I could detect. I think an orphanage may be the best place for her, at least until we can find her real parents to see if they will take better care of her."

Ranma nodded, but for some reason was mildly torn when Ono mentioned giving the baby to someone else to care for. He felt attached to this little girl. 'I need to figure out what to call her.'

After getting a few pairs of baby clothes and some other supplies from the clinic, Ranma headed back to the dojo with his cargo. Thankfully, it was two in the morning at this point, and even Ryouga stopped wandering after dark. And since none of the many people in his life seemed to be making a surprise visit, he didn't run into anyone.

Removing his shoes and donning some house slippers, Ranma headed into the kitchen to prepare some of the baby formula. Ono had suggested using the formula as well as some pre-chewed solid food to see which the baby would eat. Since she was so malnourished, Ono hadn't been able to pin down her age, but what she ate would help narrow it down. From what he had already learned from the clinic's medical books, Ranma guess she wasn't more then six months old. Based on how alert she was as well as her size, though the lack of weight made that only a very rough estimate.

After making the formula and testing the temperature, Ranma took a seat and tried to get the baby to eat. Once she realized that the bottle contained food, she took to it immediately. Ranma was so absorbed in watching the little girl eat, that he didn't notice someone watching him from the doorway until they spoke.

"Ranma? What are you doing?"

The only thing that prevented Ranma from jumping out of his skin was that he was holding the baby. Looking up he saw Nabiki looking at him with an honestly confused gaze.

"Oh, um…Hi Nabiki. I didn't think anyone was still up." The response was lame and he knew it.

"Stop being sheepish and answer my question. Why are you feeding a baby?"

Ranma knew that he shouldn't, but he couldn't resist teasing Nabiki. Her mental footing was always weaker late at night. "Because she's hungry?"

"Ranma…" It was more of a growl then anything else.

Knowing that he couldn't push his friend any further, Ranma gave an honest answer. "I found her in a trash bin. I would've left her with Tofu, but she doesn't like being away from me."

Nabiki's shock pushed her completely pushed away her irritation. "You…You mean to tell me she was abandoned?"

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, and from the look of her she was treated pretty badly before they dumped her."

Nabiki came and sat next to Ranma. They stayed like that while the baby finished feeding and fell asleep in Ranma's arms after he burped her. Nabiki and Ranma had become friends shortly after the wedding fiasco. After Ranma had confronted Nabiki on her intent in 'inviting' everyone else, Nabiki had confessed that she didn't think that Ranma and Akane were ready to marry, and that no one would listen if she had tried to stop it. Knowing that the two were both too prideful to back down first, as well as the other things like the cask of spring of drowned man keeping them from rejecting the ceremony, Nabiki took matters into her own hands. She hadn't wanted it to turn into such a debacle, and was glad that no one was seriously injured. Ranma was still mad. But could understand, and more importantly appreciate, her logic and effort.

Over the past year, the two of them had become good friends. They were both able to drop the masks they wore. Ranma could stop being an egotistical dumb jock, and Nabiki could show her emotions again. As time went by and his relationship with Akane deteriorated, Ranma was very glad for his newfound friendship with Nabiki. Oftentimes it was the only thing that kept him going.

Nabiki's next question jerked Ranma out of his thoughts. "Can I hold her?"

"Huh? Oh, uh. Yeah, I guess so. Just be careful, I don't think she likes being away from me."

Sure enough, the infant began to fuss the moment she sensed that she was moving away from Ranma. But before Ranma could pull her back, Nabiki gently too the baby into her arms and cradled her against her chest. Ranma was mildly surprised when the baby quieted immediately, and laughed quietly at Nabiki's blush when the little girl used the teenager's breast as a pillow.

Once she got the blood to leave her face Nabiki turned to Ranma and asked, "So what do you plan to do?"

Ranma sighed. "I don't know. Tofu suggested I take her to an orphanage…"

Nabiki knew Ranma well enough to know when he needed prompting. "You don't want to do you?"

Ranma thought carefully for several minutes before answering. "I'm not sure. Part of me is listing all the reasons why this is a bad idea. I'm only eighteen. I still have to get through college. How everyone else will react. Etcetera."

When he didn't continue Nabiki decided to speak up. "I can help with some of that you know. I can get adoption papers and keep Akane and some of the others in line."

"No you can't. I hate to say it but she's getting out of control. I can't blame her, she's under a lot of stress. The other fiancées, rivals for both of us crawling out of the woodwork, not to mention our idiot fathers still trying to force us to marry every few days. Add in my mom giving her advice on how to conceive twins and triplets every time, and telling her exactly how long to wait before getting pregnant again…I do what I can to help but…It's obviously not enough. I've stopped insulting her, I tried training her but I stopped that when she refused to listen to me as an instructor." He sighed and hung his head. "She blames me for all of her problems, and it's true. I am the cause of all of-"

Nabiki cut him off. "No you aren't. Did you cause Kuno to chase after her? And how many times have you stopped our father's half-baked wedding schemes? And if she won't calm down and listen when you try to teach her, then she shouldn't be learning more powerful moves. Ranma I…I think it's long past time that we do something."

"But how? Nabiki we've been trying for the past year to solve things. Get the parents off our backs? They don't listen to anything anyone says unless it fits their own narrow minded world view. Same goes for the Kunos. And even Ukyo is convinced that we're going to marry no matter what I say. The amazons refuse to bend in their laws. I know we've got Mousse on our side now, but since he's a male he was never taught the more complex laws that Cologne pulls out everytime things don't go her way. The only thing we've accomplished is getting some of my rivals to shut up and listen to us. And even that required that I beat them down first. And of them Mousse and Ryouga have been the only ones to actually acknowledge what we've said. And I don't want to have to physically fight everyone to get them to listen. We both know that it anything we say won't sink in if that's how it's presented."

When he finally paused for breath Nabiki took control of the conversation. "Calm down ok. I know it seems hopeless. If I didn't know better I'd say that one of Kodachi's drugs had permanently gotten into everyone's systems." Nabiki sighed herself at this point. "Look, honestly, I don't know what to do. And we've tried everything either of us can think of."

Ranma stared off into space. "I'm sick of it Nabiki. We haven't even been able to be friends in public for fear that someone would hurt you. I'm just so fed up with it all. Did you know that I stopped loving Akane over six months ago? And then there's that thing you helped me set up at school when I first arrived. I'm just glad the school was willing to hold my report cards for me instead of sending them out. If pops or Akane knew I was actually an A student I dunno what they'd do."

"Genma would call you a weak stupid girl, and Akane would get mad at you for 'daring' to be better then her at something." Nabiki had rarely seen Ranma so forlorn. "…Stupid isn't it."

"No. It's childish. I've grown so much this past year, we both have, and all of them are so wrapped up in their own little worlds that they refuse to acknowledge it. They still think of me the same way they always have. Pops still thinks he's more honorable then me, Akane still thinks I'm a perverted jerk, they both think they're better fighters then me…All my fiancées are children. My parents are children. Almost everyone I know is a fucking child. That little girl is more mature then any one of them…College starts in five months. I can't have all this crap following me to med school. But how can I get them to listen?"

"…You could always leave."

Ranma turned and leveled a firm stare at Nabiki. "We've discussed that. I will not run away. I have more honor then that and I will not lose it by running from my problems."

Nabiki sighed, she had been trying for a long time that it wasn't running. And that the people causing his problems were themselves honorless so he would lose none if he left them. He had at least agreed on that point about their fathers, and she had almost convinced him of the same in regards to his mother. But the fact that he hadn't known her for over a decade was making it difficult. And the fiancées were a whole separate can of worms.

The long and short of it was that they were stuck. They wouldn't go back, but they weren't being allowed to go forward. They were surrounded by people who didn't care about them as people. The two teens had run out of ideas, and were even considering giving up if things didn't change soon. Little did they know that the sleeping baby was exactly what they needed to resolve things once and for all.

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And that is the first chapter of my latest story. I got the idea for finding a baby from a few different fanfics and decided to try my hand at it. As you read above, this story takes place a full year after the series ends. So any out of character behavior is caused by that. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and more is on the way.


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